The yellow foam hands came flying in from every corner of the lower bowl, sailing onto the court in dozens of frisbee-style arches late in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ dominant victory.
LeBron James was more worried than amused by this unusual display of frustration from the Los Angeles Lakers’ fans — and he got a bit more concerned when at least one water bottle followed the foam.
“The only thing that you hope doesn’t happen is one of the players getting hit or a referee getting hit, especially by a full water bottle,” James said. “When that came on the court, it was coming pretty fast. You don’t want that to happen because it could definitely hurt somebody. Luckily no one got hurt, and that’s a good thing.”The fans were driven to throw up their hands — not the usual foam No. 1 fingers, but a representation of two puppet hands making the “LA” symbol in a tie-in to Nike’s LeBron-and-Kobe Bryant marketing campaign — by Lamar Odom’s ejection with 4:04 to play. After Bryant received the Lakers’ fifth T with 3:45 left, more hands took flight — along with that water bottle.
“I’ve never seen an L.A. crowd react like this before,” said coach Phil Jackson, whose bench drew a second T after Odom’s ejection for failing to produce a substitute quickly. “I like their enthusiasm. I don’t like their demonstrative manner. … It wasn’t a well-refereed game, it wasn’t a very well-played game, so I think it was a reaction to that.”
Aw, the poor little Laker fans didn’t get their way so they had to throw a tantrum. Waaaaaaaa!
Photo from fOTOGLIF
